ESSAY UPON REDWOOO. 79 



filling deep gorge, wild wood and wider vale here and there 

 in a hurry anon, stealthily as the cautious Indian, reassured, 

 they emerge from out embroidered foliage, surprising one as 

 an apparition, pale and gray as a ghost from the shades ! 

 comfortably, afar off, as it were on dry land, this eternal drip 

 is not so annoying to contemplate ! On our high places, 

 spell-bound, one may sit for hours in pleasant reverie, watch- 

 ing the changing, billowy abyss. Soon the cambric night- 

 curtain lifts, and vistas of grandeur and of glory, beauty un- 

 wonted ! and still they rise, refreshed and charmed as a morn- 

 ing bride in her vail : but to dwell on these ever- varying vis- 

 ions would be to write an endless volume ! Suffice to say, 

 our redwoods are only found within the limits of these fre- 

 quent fogs, five to fifteen, rarely thirty miles inland, and 

 probably never beyond forty, even in the most favorable low 

 portions of the coast, where fogs pass unobstructedly through 

 open gaps and freely along the lowland vales. These majestic 

 John the Baptist Cedars seem to possess a magic power over 

 passing fogs, precipitating them, and as it were, sprinkling 

 with a continual rain the loose ashy earth, or usual sandstone 

 soil at their feet : strictly speaking, rainless earth-clouds are 

 they, from on high ; nevertheless, distilling a continual sup- 

 ply to replenish living springs of the purest waters that ever 

 bubble and babble at the charming redwood's bidding; they 

 are therefore choice guides to, and guards around, the purest 

 fountains and general water supplies of the Coast Range wil- 

 derness ; but for this very reason, most lands are apt to be- 

 come too miry beneath them for public highways and private 

 avenues, and for rural retreats they are altogether unfit. 



